2016: Page 120

Page 120 is a Friday so it is a long day for me. As I have often done on Fridays, I am writing today’s page while I’m at work letting the floor scrubber recharge so I can finish my weekend cleaning. I did something this morning that I rarely do — I hit the snooze button on the alarm clock and didn’t get to work until 6:30 AM. Part of the morning delay was an extra 10 minutes of sleep and part of it was stopping to get fuel for the mower so I wouldn’t have to go get it later. After the morning cleaning routine, I took the trash out and started mowing. Even with a sweatshirt, windbreaker, and hat, it was rather chilly all morning. Mid-way through mowing the back lawn, the moisture in the air was thick enough that it felt like drizzle even though nothing was really getting wet. Once the back lawn was done, I came inside to do some work on one of my writing projects while I warmed up with a cup of hot coffee. I was able to outline another 31-day devotional journal and begin laying it out in book form. After completing each day’s focus page, I worked on the cover layout. The photo with today’s page is what I’m currently looking at for the front and back cover spread.

Once warmed, I headed back out to finish mowing with the addition of gloves to my mowing attire. Now my mind was set on the topics from the book I am writing and I began to feel a bit melancholy that I’m here and not there. I began to silently sing, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.” As that song played and replayed in my mind, I thought about the hymn that was sung as a decision song way back when I first made a public decision to follow Christ when I was in fourth grade. The words are still some of my favorite, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace.” When I fix my gaze on Jesus and set my mind on a destination that is an eternity with God, the stuff of this world has an ever-decreasing hold on me. Once the mowing was done, I finished up some office work and headed to lunch around 2:30 to begin a break before coming back to to the weekend cleaning tonight. Much of my break was spent taking a leisurely stroll at Potato Creek State Park with camera in hand looking to capture images of different things that would catch my attention. Compared to most of my hikes there, I didn’t cover much distance but found a good variety of God’s creation to photograph.

After my time at the park, it was back to work at 5 PM to start getting the building ready for Sunday. As I worked on the cafeteria room floor, a person came to let me know a toilet had evidently overflowed and the men’s bathroom was flooded. Sure enough, all of the toilets were filled to overflowing and at least one of them overflowed for quite some time. As I mopped and mopped up water and then mopped and re-mopped again to clean and disinfect, I had to wonder how things could get so bad without someone reporting that there was a problem. And as a sense of frustration began to build, God brought the words of the song back to my mind — “And the things of earth will grow strangely dim . . .”. It was as if He was reminding me that this wasn’t nearly as big of a deal as it was starting to become in my mind. I think so many things are like that. The urgency, the unpleasantness, the mess, the tediousness, the ugliness, the so many other things begin to make whatever it is seem so much larger and so much more important than what it really is. So, the clean-up is done. The bathroom smells clean. The rest of my days work continues to get done. And God continues to lead me home.

I pray that you and I would never lose sight of where our real home is. I pray that we would keep the troubles of this life in proper perspective. I pray that we would always take time to enjoy the journey as we travel with God toward our heavenly home.

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All posts on this blog are my thoughts and opinions at the time of writing and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other individual or organization. I have been known to change my mind on occasion, so the writings here may not even reflect my views all the time.
Thanks for learning with me. - Tom